www.vitac.com x xx x the message is pull back your forces. >> what's your interest there? is this worth fighting snr. >> i think this is an enormous mistake for russia. >> good afternoon to you. i'm craig melvin. you're watching msnbc. the prime minister of ukraine says russian troops in crimea amounts to a declaration of war. so, what's the next move? >> at the end of the day, russia needs to be isolated. >> call it what it is. this is a government of liars, the russian government. >> i would like to create a democratic noose around putin's

russia. >> what's vladimir putin really up to? we'll talk to a former ambassador and get some expert insight. plus, live reports from the region. meanwhile, back here in the united states, snow is now more unpopular than congress and there's yet another winter storm baring down on much of this country right now. this one could wallop as many as 139 million people. then, later -- >> this is an issue of national importance. it is as important as any issue that i work on. it's an issue that goes to the very heart of why i ran for president. >> president obama's new initiative to help young black men, what the post-racial president's announcement this week could mean. also, the new fresh face still at yale starred in the first feature film. that move vi is the front-runner and could take home her first

statute. we start with the fast-moving crisis in ukraine. na nato's secretary-general called on russia to withdraw forces back to the bases and refrain from interfering elsewhere in ukraine. meanwhile, that country's interim prime minister also asked president putin to pull back his military and saying, quote, this is a red alert. this is not a threat. this is actually a declaration of war to my country. you krin y ukranian officials say that the country will ask for international help if russia invades. the united states announced that it would stop participating in preparation meetings ahead of june's g-8 meeting and this morning, secretary of state kerry suggesting an aid package for crew yan. david cameron announcing boycott

the paralympics in sochi to this start week. we have three reports, ian williams is in ukraine. we start with ian williams. >> reporter: craig, good day to you from the center of the slightly bizarre spectacle of protesters in the shadow of a statue of lenin. but at same tootimes, yesterday of supporters of the new government in kiev leaving dozen injured. sinister when we saw a militia-type group take over the city hall here. now, they broke in, they stayed there for a day. then equally as mysteriously, they disappeared sunday morning. and today, there were lines of

riot police waiting out the front. now, the protesters here in the shadow of lenin have their own barricades. they have their own flowers, pictures. but these are of former riot policemen that died in the clashes in kiev a few days ago. they are clearly very encouraged by events in crimea and hope russia will react here. the big fear, of course, is that russia is trying to kree yacrea situation, stir up chaos and instability in the east to justify intervention here. that is the big fear but also, of course, the hope that the pro-russian protest erps in the square behind me here. craig? >> all right. nbc's ian williams for us there in ukraine, thank you. want to bring in nbc's jim mecada now. we heard from secretary of state kerry and samantha power and then the white house announcement on friday afternoon that warning that there would be

costs. how's russia reacting to the criticism coming from this country? >> reporter: well, if russia is putin, they're reacting like the teflon man. first of all, the reason for that is that putin wouldn't call what he's doing an act of war or aggression with all due respect to secretary of state kerry, but more of an act of self defense from his point of view, from putin's point of view, the new western or pro-western government in kiev is posing an existential threat to crimea and it's an essential war mortar port and base for the black sea fleet and he doesn't seem a bit affect bd i the criticism from abroad. putin doesn't seem to -- he doesn't seem to believe that the u.s. or its allies have the leverage to hurt him, especially when he sees the kind of reaction coming from russians out in the streets here in moscow and st. petersburg today

where tens of demonstrated this support of putin's actions in ukraine with more pro-putin demonstrations scheduled in the days ahead. so, putin's apparently struck a chord here at home despite all of the criticism. craig? >> tens of thousands, jim, and also, with protests there, were they largely peaceful? >> reporter: yes, yes, they were largely peaceful. just goes to show you that the -- there is a huge slice of society in russia that does respond, that does -- where this situation really does resonate. many russians distrust what's going on in the government of nationalists, they say, and fascists, they say, in kiev today. back to you. >> jim maceda for us in moscow, thank you. i want to bring in kristen welker for us at 1600

pennsylvania. we know that president obama was on the phone for 90 minutes yesterday afternoon with vladimir putin. what do we know about that conversation? >> reporter: well, craig, we know that the conversation is being characterized as testy and tense by the white house. president obama warning russian president vladimir putin that there will be a price to pay if russia doesn't withdraw from ukraine and saying that the u.s. has already decided it will not attend preparatory meeting for the g-8 summit. by the way, other countries are saying the same thing. britain, canada saying they're not going to attend the preparatory meetings and then you had today secretary of state john kerry appearing on a number of sunday shows continuing with the tough talk, saying that the u.s. will isolate russia, economically kerry saying he had spoken to ten foreign ministers today all on board with the plan of isolated russia if it doesn't stop the intervention in ukraine

saying that there could be sanctions as well as other possible ramifications. i've been speaking to some foreign policy experts saying it's going to be tough to have an impact on putin with any of those mshls because, of course, you have the united states saying, at this point in time they're not considering doing anything militarily. we know that president obama was briefed today by his national security team and he is planning to reach out to his foreign counterparts throughout the day. craig, back to you. >> all right. at the white house fn on a sunday afternoon, thank you. let's bring in the u.s. ambassador to ukraine under presidents clinton and george w. bush. mr. ambassador, thank you for joining me. secretary of state john kerry this morning saying there's more to the russian action than dealing with ukraine. take a listen. >> you just don't invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests. >> well, but -- >> there are ways to deal with

this and president putin knows that. president obama yesterday offered mediation. there are plenty of ways to protect russian-speaking people in crimea or other parts of ukraine. but, you know, they're really sort of a hidden pretext here of possibly trying to annex crimea. >> do you agree with that assessment, ambassador? what's the real motivation to annex crimea? >> the russians are not -- i shouldn't say the russians. the kremlin is not happy with the democratically minded government in kiev and because they're unhappy and put so much stock in mr. yanukovich and he fell and corrupt and authoritarian and had to show ukraine there's a price to be paid for not paying attention to the kremlin's wishes and that price to create a crisis in crimea, perhaps to seize crimea,

perhaps to intervene elsewhere in ukraine. it's very dangerous game. >> the mission here, sounds like you're saying that the mission could be to destabilize all of ukraine. >> that's certainly one consequence or one possible consequence of this, yes. >> the united states as you know placing the blame for this crisis squarely on the shoulders of vladimir putin, senator julia mancuso -- john mccain saying with "the beast" has totally misjudged russia and president putin. he said in part, of course, she got it wrong. secretary clinton here. saying that mccain, she believed that there would be a reset with the kgb colonel with ambitions to restore the russian empire. that's what this is all about. this personalizing the crisis, ambassador, this personalizing it, around president putin, does that make it easier for harder to understand what issues are at

stake here? >> the importance thing to understand is that mr. putin has a very clear vision for russia and for his nabld and that vision is authoritarian and anti-western and anti-american, and he is responsible for this crisis. the crew crane yan people working out affairs on their own without serious intervention from outside, except from russia. and, you know, while they're trying to work it out, the russians encouraging violence against his own people. we know that adviser to putin called for violence. a legislator has documents showing there's a gru general in ukraine working with the yanukovich government to repress the people. >> what's that stand for? >> the initials for russian military intelligence. >> got you. president obama's warning friday afternoon, it seems to have gone largely unheeded so far.

scott will so writing in "washington post," a president who's made clear to the american public that the tide of war is receding has also made clear to foreign leaders including opportunists in russia he has no appetite for a new one. when's slept a vacuum once filled by the possibility, the possibility of american force. before the provocation, presumably putin considered the soft sanctions, economic sanctions, banning high-level officials from visiting the west, bringing georgia and ukraine in to nato, if russia's president concluded those were not enough to stop him, and the military option is off the table, what's left? >> i think you make some legitimate points. but if you take a clear look at this, here's what you see. first, it's true that putin thinks he can get away with this just as they did in georgia in 2008. so that's part of his calculation and keep in mind he

got away with that not when president obama was in the white house. point two, i think president obama has shown admirable restraint in syria but putin because the people advocating for a strong american military role in syria don't understand the alternative to assad is jihadists. putin may have interpreted that as weakness. be that as it may, the united states is laying down a firm and clear line russia will pay a price for this naked aggression. that price will involve economic sanctions and we'll see if the russians manage the sanctions so easily. especially if we move towards personal sanctions. personal sanctions in ukraine brought down by the eu brought down yanukovich government a week and a half ago. i don't think mr. putin would like it if the people of russia knows the billions of dollars he's stolen and put into western economic institutions and if we were to freeze those assets.

and if we were to freeze the assets of other seniors russians involved in the ukraine. >> all right. ambassador, we'll leave it there. your insight is valuable. thank you. >> thank you. rain-soaked california has been dealing with flooding and mudslides more than two days now. the hope was that all the rain would dent the drought. houston, do you copy? houston, this is mission specialist stone. i am off structure and i'm drifting. do you copy? >> and then later, will it be the year of the newcomer or oscar number two for sandra bullock? this is msnbc. we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. my dad has aor afib.brillation, he has the most common kind... ...it's not caused by a heart valve problem.

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many hoping the rain in

southern california would help the drought but it was too much too fast. triggering mudslides, floods and sinkholes, as well. at least 14 deaths attributed to the storm and damage estimates at this point topping $17 million. now, as that same storm heads east, people are bracing for a snowstorm which could dump up to another 6 to 8 inches of snow in some places where many people are digging out from the last winter storm and the one before that and the one before that and the one before that. john yang is in indianapolis where they are understand as i understand it, on the verge of breaking the record, no? >> reporter: that's right, craig. we are in the lull of two waves of snow. the first wave, the smaller wave came through overnight last night and this morning. you can see it dumped about an inch of very light, fluffy snow and you can see the tops of the grass peeking through but you can also see over there the

piles of know that have come from the other storms you have been talking about if they get in the second wave which is supposed to start later this afternoon and last into tomorrow morning, if they get six more inches of snow, they'll break a 32-year-old record for the most snow in the snow season. for the 12 months between uniju of last year and june of this year. that record, 58.2 inches. almost five feet of snow. and but there's also been tantalizing hints here in indianapolis about what's to come, about two weeks ago the high was 62 and a lot of the snow that was on the ground melted which is why you can still see grass peeking up now. just yesterday, the high here was 49. 24 hours later, it is now 19. and tomorrow it will get even

colder, they say. craig? >> john yang for us in indianapolis where winter just won't seem to go away. thank you, sir. kensington palace announced that prince william, kate and son george will all be visiting new zealand and australia next month and going to be the royal prince's first trip and the first time that the public will get to see george since his crestening in october. when i go in there,st, i want to be awesome too. so i've totally gone pro with crest pro-health. [ male announcer ] go pro with crest pro-health.

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♪ ♪ i think this is the most important territory to putin himself and there's an old expression that russia without the ukraine is a country and russia with the ukraine is an empire. >> so what are vladimir putin's motivations? does anyone really even know? and how did we get here? some republicans insist it is partly president obama's fault. >> every time the president goes on national television and threatens putin or anyone like putin, everybody's eyes roll,

including mine. we have a weak and indecisive president that invite aggression. >> rhode island democratic congress is a member of the house foreign affairs committee, thank you for being with me. president obama as you know has said famously that the tide of war is receding. he's preached that sermon to the american people. he's preached it to foreign leaders, as well. when that's the message that we have all heard, how do you reconcile that message with what the friday afternoon warning there will be costs? >> i think the president has been very clear to engage in military action as a last resort and seen some action of chemical weapons in syria, the negotiations with iran and its nuclear weapons program so i think the president's made it clear that before we engage in military action we have a responsibility to exhaust all over levers of power to resolve conflicts and this is a very

dangerous situation. we have many tools at our disposal to assert leverage in this situation, ways to isolate russia, begin to isolate them in the g-8 and g-20, sanctions that might ultimately be imposed. we have got to give the president an opportunity to pursue those things, at the same time recognize that the best result is for russia to pull back from its aggression but to understand very clearly that this is a right of the ukranian people to be a free and sovereign country and to have its borders respected and that the united states along with the international community will condemn this, will call on them to do the right thing, we'll explore the other tools available to us and the international community and not a dispute between russia and the united states but about the right of the crukranian people d how do we respond to an act of aggression and violation of international law and existing treaties? >> her's the question, though.

we should note that the jury is still out on whether all of syria's chemical weapons have actually been taken into custody and destroyed. >> no, no. i agree. that process is under way because of strong diplomatic efforts ian a strong threat of military force. >> here we have crimea. a city of 2 million. 60% of the folks who live there apparently identify very much with russia. what happens if they decide in earnest in crimea that they no longer want to be part of ukraine, then what? >> look. there are rules of international law. ukraine is a sovereign country with borders and the fact there's elements within its border which is are dissatisfied with the democratic government doesn't mean that another country's permitted to invade. there are ways to resolve disputds and reassure minorities in a particular area or people speaking a different language of their security and their safety

but doesn't justify a military action of russia, an act of aggression into crimea. so that's just a false pretext, i believe, for russia's position here and for the aggression. there are many ways to resolve disputes that might exist or disagreements but this is about a basic principle of international law that respect it is boards of a country and right to sovereignty. >> really quickly here, 25, 30 seconds. and this may sound like a simple question but important question, as well. why should folks in this country, why should we care about precisely when's happening right now in ukraine, in crimea? >> well, we should care, of course, any time a sovereign nation with its borders clearly defined is invaded by another country. this kind of aggression is not something we should tolerate anywhere in the world. and we have to work with the entire international community to condemn it and use all of our levers of power, particularly the diplomatic realm to be sure there's a cost to discourage

that happening anywhere in the world and encourage president putin to pull back from this very dangerous situation. >> congressman, member of the house foreign affairs committee, thank you. >> thanks for having me on. still to come, an innovative way to help college grads pay off their student loans. it's today's big idea. also the man once called the blade runner about to get his day in court and president obama's initiative to help young black men, too little, too late? some of his critics suggested. we'll talk about that. ♪

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yeah, i want to see "the real housewives." rewind! yeah! jimmy? it's been hours. we told you the x1 entertainment operating system show me "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon." that's what i'm talking about right there. [ cheers and applause ] [ female announcer ] control your tv with your voice. the x1 entertainment operating system. only from xfinity. good sunday. i'm craig melvin. here's a quick look at the other top stories making headlines right now. the pope is urging dialogue for ukraine. back here, u.s. navy jet crashed in rural nevada. the navy says the jet is a total loss at this point we don't know how the pilot is doing.

and a snowborder riding a closed area may be the person that triggered that avalanche that destroyed a house and injured three. police are trying to figure out if he lost any laws. in africa, one of the nation's favorite sons, an amputee track star, is set to go on trial monday. the man known as blade runner who ran in the 2012 olympics accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend on valentine's day in 2013. we have more from south africa. >> reporter: craig, it's been called the trial of the century. the trial of oscar pistorius is expected monday morning facing charges that he murdered his then girlfriend. oscar pistorius is a man well-known in south africa and around the world as the first paraolympian to compete in london. the prosecution is going to lay out its argument tomorrow by trying to paint oscar pistorius

as an angry, jealous man and led to him murdering his girlfriend. but the defense has a completely different argument. they say oscar was an innocent man who actually killed her by accident, a tragic mistake when he in the middle of the night assumed she was a struder who had broken into his house and it's a media scircus. you can imagine that it is going to be a trial that grips not only the country but the entire world and in a first for the country, the judge is allowing cameras in the courtroom. expected to last three to five weeks and could be several weeks after that before the judge issues a verkd. back to you. >> all right. thank you, sir. we are back here, and not used to president obama talking about race in an exceptionally personal way but announcing the my brother's keeper initiative this week he did just that

announcing the stark statistics and challenges of young men of color. >> we have become numb to these statistics. we're not surprised by them. we take them as the norm. we just assume this is an inevitable part of american life. instead of the outrage that it is. >> james peterson is a msnbc contributor, tim king is president and ceo of urban prep academics and dr. ivory tollson, deputy director of the white house historically black college and universities initiative, also a professor at howard university. good to see all of you. thank you for being with me. tim, let's start with you. i know that you were at that white house event on thursday. and i do want to let folks know, a few of the details of the program. the goal ultimately, to keep young men of color in school and out of jail.

it short it establishes a new task force to expand opportunity for young men of color and includes investments from foundations and businesses to enhance things like early childhood development, school readines readiness, parenting and the criminal justice system and they're looking to invest at least some $200 million over the next 5 years to find solutions that have the greatest impact. that's on top of the $150 million they have already invested. tim, how far do we think this initiative to go to the solve the problems that president obama outlined thursday? >> well, certainly, isn't broad enough to solve every single problem that exists but the thing that's important about in it my opinion is it's starting a conversation at the national level and the president is using the bully pulpit in order to convince folks that this is an issue and that they need to invest and celebrate and recognize the hard work that people are doing in these

communities and a great, great start. >> you think it was a conversation starter than anything else? >> well, it definitely is a conversation starter and can't undervalue that importance of that. but it also is real dollars coming in to provide help to folks. $150 million invested and $00 million invested. i think those are significant dollars, again, not enough to solve every problem and certainly enough to do some good. >> dr. ivory, what do we know about precisely what's working right now? >> yeah, well this initiative started after years of a lot of foundations already at the table investing money, resources into different strategies and some of the thing that is we understand about what helps young black males to achieve in school is health practices, their diet, their sleeping and also the school environment that they're in so having a school environment based on caring and respect, one where discipline is

equitable and fair and not suspended for things they shouldn't be and rigorous curriculum that's based on high expectations so that means having ap classes and honors classes and enrichment programs at the schools. all help black males to achieve in school. >> james, you contend that charity is not justice and that philanthropy is not policy. what do you mean? >> well, charity is not justice is my quote. i think the question is about scale. i don't disagree with either of our guests here. i think they're right in their assessment of it and starting the conversation but the question for me is about scale and while i appreciate and applaud all of the foundations at the table and the corporations that will come to the table, i think the federal government's got to be at the table to bring to scale the things that ivory's talking about. talking about nutrition in the public school system, if you want to talk about making sort

of providing support for what the department of education is doing in terms of reducing zero tolerance policies across the country in the schools, that requires policy changes and require the scale is what's the big issue here, craig, we have to bring them to scale to properly address the problems and we cannot rely on philanthropy or charity for social justice for the young people. >> there have to be major policy shifts in this country. here's the other part of this. >> absolutely. >> we all know, tim, that the connection, not correlation, but causation, talking about poverty and student achievement and relationship between poverty and outcomes, that is undeniable. i didn't hear a great deal on thursday about what precisely we do to fix that, to fix the abject poverty that exists in large pockets of major metropolitan areas, neps this country. >> there wasn't a lot in the talk on thursday or announcement

on thursday about that specifically. but i don't really think that was the point of the announcement on thursday. i was impressed and, frankly, encouraged by the president's willingness to create a task force that includes multiple departments. i think there's a realization among the folks at the white house that this is an issue to just be solved through philanthropy and foundations and engage different departments at the broadest level, the national level and i think there's real thinking around doing that and the plan is to engage the department of education and justice to make sure that these issues are addressed. >> ivory, the president intimately describing the experience, really caught some folks off guard, caught them by surprise. take a listen. >> i didn't have a dad in the house. and i was angry about it even though i didn't necessarily realize it at the time.

i made bad choices. i got high without always thinking about the harm that it could do. i didn't always take school as seriously as i should have. i made excuses. sometimes i sold myself short. >> ivory, when's the president trying to do there? >> i think trying to connect with young black males everywhere with similar experiences. but the more important thing is that adolescents go through different ordeals but what's happening in this society is that there's an impact for young black males making mistakes and males of other races, also. the important thing about this initiative is being a driver of social change and one of the things i'm proud of being a part of the white house initiative is i get to bring hbcus to the table because they're vitally important for avenues to young black males to have something to

aspire to and the young black males are models about what we want our young black males to achieve and happy about the event in charlotte, north carolina, where they talked about the initiative and how to better serve young black males. >> i'm working on a series of stories relating to what you talked about. i'm going to give you a call, sir. thank you. >> thank you. >> good to see you, sir. tim for us in chicago, a big thanks to all of you. when we come back, switching gears a bit. we are going to head out west. there you see it. a live look. that's hollywood. the stars are out tonight for the 86th annual academy awards. you are watching msnbc. it's not for pain, it's just for sleep. because sleep is a beautiful thing™. ♪ zzzquil. the non-habit forming sleep aid from the makers of nyquil®. ♪ yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

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tomorrow. quick look at the weather. nice day, beautiful tomorrow. tomorrow is full of promise. we can come back tomorrrow. and we promise to keep it that way. driven to preserve the environment, csx moves a ton of freight nearly 450 miles on one gallon of fuel. what a day. can't wait til tomorrow. suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. back now to the developing news of the day here. the tense situation fwh ukraine. russia's prime minister medvedev saying that deposed yukrainian

president yanukovych is the prime minister and then next breath said that the authority is practically nonexistent, moments after the head of nato warned russia to get its forces out of ukraine. those comments coming after an emergency immediating of nato ambassadors in brug sssels. more coming up from moscow at the top of the hour. to the big idea now. what if you -- what if you could volunteer your way out of student loan debt? it's a fantastic idea. right? that's the concept by sponsor change.org for recent graduates a chance to do two things at once basically. give back to the community through volunteering at nonprofits and using that work to help pay down their debt. raymer joining us live now. hey, first of all, how does this work? >> well, in simple terms, craig,

you hit it on the head. basically we work with current students, recent graduates to match the skills to nonprofit organizations to give back time and skills and in the process we help them raise pufunding for their projects to pay down some loans. >> how much are we talking about? >> $1,000 per project. taking a step back, the largestishes we're dealing with here is rising student loan debt. the cost of higher education is astronomical and trying to create pathways for graduates and students who want to be involved in the community but, you know, there's the financial burden of student loan debt. you know, there's the issue of, you know, prioritizing, working a second or third job versus working at the nonprofit and trying to create pathways for the students to get involved in the community and the student loan reward piece is just one aspect of the overall benefit

for the program. i mean, talking about students who were able to build their skills, able to, you know, meet new people through the course of volunteering. we have actually had participants who have volunteered at a nonprofit, have used the skills and been offered full-time positions at the nonprofits. >> win-win. >> absolutely a win-win. >> what's been the response so far from not only the students but the nonprofits, as well? >> for the students, you can imagine. i mean, any time there's a program that's going to help you pay back your student loans through volunteering, the change agents are -- the students become change agents. they're aggressively knocking at the door. nonprofits, as well. i mean, they understand the importance of recruiting volunteers and basically the pipeline in the sort of life blood for nonprofits is volunteer and so we're helping nonprofits to not only recruit but to manage volunteers and

also offer them a modest reward for their service. >> sponsor change.org. that's the website. check it out. raymar hampshire, founder, thank you sof. appreciate you stopping by. and do you have a big idea making a difference? tell us about it. we'd love to hear from you. you can e-mail us. there's the address on the screen. you can also tweet us, as well. we're all over twitter. there's the hash tag. eople clea. but there are some places even mr. clean doesn't want to lug a whole bunch of cleaning supplies. that's why he created the magic eraser extra power. just one eraser's versatile enough to clean all kinds of different surfaces and three times more grime per swipe. so instead of fussing with rags and buckets, you can get back to the great outdoors, which can be pretty great. that's why when it comes to clean, there's only one mr. [ bird screeches ]

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they are getting ready in hollywood. many of us are getting ready as well because in about four hour, envelopes will open, the stars will be on display, the oscars are upon us. for hours, people have been gathering outside hollywood's stori storied dolby theater. this year, the oscars seem to be very much a wide-open contest. no one movie is expected to

sweep, leaving a lot of folks to wonder who's going to win. chris witherspoon is the entertainment editor for thegrio.com. tom guyer, senior editor at "entertainment weekly." chris, let's jump right in. >> if ike not mistaken, you just tried to describe a federal officer. >> no, technically i didn't bribe anybody. no, no, no. according to the u.s. criminal code, there needs to be an exact dollar figure for an exchange of services. >> "wolf of wall street" there. leo dicaprio to a four-time oscar nominee. he's been in a number of films that have won, but leo has never actually won for himself. no best actor. is this the year? >> he's definitely long overdue, but i don't think this is the year for him. this race is going to come down to matthew mcconaughey.

>> do we think this is the year for matthew mcconaughey or the year for "12 years a slave"? >> this is all right, all right, all right. it's matthew mcconaughey all the way in this category. he swept all the pre-oscar awards. he's the favorite here. >> when you drop 40 pounds for a role, i mean, i guess it's probably easier to get the academy to -- speaking of that, really quickly, for folks who aren't familiar with how this thing happens. who votes? >> the academy is made up of 6,000 voters. about one-fifth of them are actors. so the actors do dominate the academy. but then it's also producers and writers and directors and studio executives. we never hear the final vote count, but we know that the vast majority of them do, in fact, vote. >> best actress, a lot of folks saying it's a race this year between sandra bullock and kate blanchett. who has the edge here?

>> my pick is kate blanchett. she was amazing in "blue jasmine." she's been in the game a long time. her collaboration with woody allen, among the controversy. >> best supporting actress. this is a category a lot of folks are paying close attention to. you've got lupita, who had not even finished yale drama school before she landed a role in "12 years a slave." >> really? you know why. i got this from mistress. >> it is a compelling movie. folks who have not seen it. so is this the year that we see a newcomer come and sweep this

thing, or is this the year jennifer lawrence does it? i think it would be back to back for her. >> yeah, she won last year. i don't see j. law taking it. i think this is lupita taking it. she wept the awards season this for. everyone wants to see her win. regardless, she's hollywood's it girl right now. she's a fashion icon. everyone is waiting to see what she's wearing tonight. she's really arrived and burst on to the scene. this is her first film. it's incredible to see her first major film, this kind of actingacting talent. >> this is an anniversary year for african-americans specifically. 75 years ago hatty mcdaniel won that oscar for "gone with the wind." this year there are a number of black presenters. jamie foxx, best actor in 2004. will smith, i understand, is going to be presenting. america's new darling, kerry washington, also presenting tonight. chris, how have the roles of

black actors changed over the decades? >> yeah, i think it's incredible to think that 75 years ago hatty mcdaniel won this award. she was playing a servant in "gone with the wind." and we have a plethora, so much depth now. "the butler," "12 years a slave." a lot of it comes down to who's behind the scenes, who's writing these films, who's producing these films and in charge of telling these stories. lupita is a great example. she's a new actress. she's nominated in the same category that hatty mcdaniel was nominated in 75 years ago. she'll go on and probably have a lot of great film roles because there's so many great films in the black community right now. >> chris, nine films up for best picture. who takes it? >> i think it's a race between "gravity" and "12 years a slave." too close to call. >> i think "12 years a slave." >> either or?

>> yeah. >> i think "gravity" has the slight edge. >> joe on the floor here saw "gravity" and was not a fan. >> oh, no. >> we got to go. we're out of time. thank you both for being with me on a sunday afternoon. thanks to you, as well, for stopping by. see you back here next weekend at 2:00 eastern on saturday afternoon. right now, it's "disrupt" with karen finney. [ male announcer ] go pro with crest pro-health. [ tisola ] the first time i tried crest pro-health, it felt different, i mean it felt clean. [ male announcer ] crest pro-health protects all these areas dentists check most. she's going to do backflips when she sees this. [ male announcer ] 4 out of 5 dentists didn't spot the difference between a professional clean and a pro-health clean. i am extremely impressed. i guess that's what happens when you go pro. [ male announcer ] go pro with crest pro-health. excuse me, did you say you want to see my teeth? oh, i'm sorry. purina dog chow light & healthy is a deliciously tender and crunchy kibble blend. with 20% fewer calories than purina dog chow. isn't it time you discovered the lighter side of dog chow.

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